Description of the Prior Art
During production of integrated circuit package assemblies, one step of the process is the solder coating of leads, conventionally made of copper. The solder coating serves to prevent undesirable oxidation of the leads that would adversely affect solderability and electrical conduction during operation of the integrated circuit device. To implement the solder coating of the leads, wave is one soldering technique used. The coating process is implemented by positioning the integrated circuit package in a holder, which is then directed into a molten solder wave. The conventional method places each IC package flat on a pallet, with one side of the rectangular or square package facing the solder wave, as the package on the pallet approaches and enters the solder wave. A problem that exists with this method is that after the integrated circuit package and its external leads are passed through the solder wave, the solder material tends to cool and form solder drops or clumps which generally occur at the ends of the leads. Since the fine pitch leads are usually spaced about 0.025 inch apart, center to center, the solder clumps that form can bridge the gaps between the leads and cause electrical shorting contacts.